Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The Department of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences Education is responsible for educating and updating nursery, primary and secondary school teachers concerning the areas of the department’s competence.

The activities of the professors and members of the department include the planning and development of both research projects and educational programs for teachers in the field of language, literature and social sciences.

The research activities are lead by five groups and are financed by local and national government agencies (ARIE, MQD and DGI, CIDE respectively), european projects (Lingua, Comenius, Ariadna, Minerva, Azione IV), through cooperation with research networks and research activities in partnership with foundations or private companies.

The Department of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences Education is part of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). The department promotes and organizes teaching and research activities in the fields of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences. Staff members of the department are involved in the teaching of undergraduate and post-graduate courses, and are also in charge of student supervision, research theses, development of research projects, circulation of research results and promotion of knowledge transfer activities.

Marilisa Birello – Researcher

Marilisa Birello earned the Ph.D. (European Doctorate Mention) in Philosophy and Educational Science at the University of Barcelona, with a thesis entitled La alternancia de lengua en la clase de italiano lengua extranjera. Su uso en las interacciones en subgrupos de alumnos adultos en Cataluña. (The alternation of language in Italian as foreign language classes. The use of the Italian language in interactions among subgroups of adult learners in Catalonia).

Marisa Birello has been involved in several research projects about the reflective practice of learning and teaching languages in many catalan and international universities. She also published articles in various periodicals and collaborated in editorial projects for the creation of materials for learning Italian as foreign language. She is currently a member of the GREAL group (Grup de Recerca en Ensenyament i Aprenentatge de Llengua) at the UAB.

After a long career in teaching Italian as a foreign language, she is currently working in The Department of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences Education of the UAB. Her research projects focus on education of teachers, metalinguistic reflection and the analysis of interactions in multilingual and multicultural classrooms.

Teresa Ribas – Associate Professor

Teresa Ribas graduated in Spanish and earned a Ph.D. at the UAB. She is a professor at the Department of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences Education of the UAB, specifically in the field of language education for future teachers in primary school, secondary school and masters of research. She was the principal investigator of research projects and has held various management roles among the faculty.

She is one of the first members of the GREAL group, and has participated in several research projects about the teaching of written composition, the formative assessment in writing, and the metalinguistic reflection in teaching grammar. She was supervisor of several theses for the Master’s Degree in Teaching Language and Literature and for the Ph.D. Department. She organizes various scientific conferences and meetings, and also participates often to training days and continuous trainig courses for teachers. Besides, she has been published several times in her career.

Marina Casadellà – Ph.D. Candidate

Marina Casadellà graduated in Pedagogy at the UAB in 2012. She earned the Master’s Degree in Language and Literature at the same university, with a thesis supervised by Oriol Guasch and entitled El tractament integrat del verb a les assignatures de llengua catalana i llengua castellana a 2n d’ESO (2013).

She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the UAB (PIF scholarship/bursary – Personal d’Investigació en Formació), and is also a member of the research group GREAL. In her Ph.D. thesis, she studies the continuing education of language teachers in the context of learning communities (supervisors: Xavier Fontich and Teresa Ribas). Casadella teaches language education to future primary school teachers in the Faculty of Education Sciences.

Montserrat Pérez Ventayol

After graduating in Catalan Philology and earning a Master’s Degree in Teaching Language and Literature at the UAB, she is currently a professor at the Department of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences Education, where she teaches Language Education for future primary school teachers and speech therapists.

She was coordinator and professor of Teaching Catalan for Language Reception for both the Master’s and the post-graduation courses at the UAB.

She also teaches Catalan as foreign language for adults, and has published various materials about Catalan teaching for beginners.